Victim had lived in fear of her accused killer

Five months before her murder, in the days leading up to Christmas, Jamica Woods drove to district court in search of help.

Court filings show the 37-year-old mother was afraid for her life, trapped in a cycle of abuse and terror. At some point she must have had enough, and on December 20 she showed up at the district court in Valley to file an emergency Protection from Abuse order against the father of her daughter and longtime boyfriend, 44-year-old Gregory Twyman.

In a handwritten affidavit, penned in neat cursive script, Woods described the constant threats and physical abuse that had her living in fear. In an apparent effort to free herself of the abuse, Woods defiantly told Twyman that she had had enough. At court, she wrote about a telephone conversation the two had that day, explaining that she warned him that he would have to answer to the police if he showed up at their Rokeby Road home.

“I said if he came to the house I had a PFA and he would go to jail,” Woods wrote, but her courage was only met with more threats. “He said ‘If I go to jail, wait to see where you go.’ I believe he would cause physical harm or even kill me.”

It wasn’t the first time Woods had heard similar threats, she wrote. According to the affidavit, earlier in the day Woods filed the PFA Twyman showed up at their home and attempted to kick in the front door. She wrote that he would not let her leave him, that she had tried, but she was scared.

“He has threatened me also by saying if I’m not with him I won’t be with anyone else,” Woods wrote. “I have been trying to get away from him for a long time, but he threatens me. I’m scared that when I go home tonight he is going to be there waiting or that he will show up in the middle of the night.”

Nearly five months later to the day, Woods was gunned down with a shotgun inside her home. The man she feared, Gregory Twyman, is now in Chester County Prison facing a first degree murder charge and a potential life sentence or death penalty.

Woods’ murder left many friends and family members asking what else could have been done. At Twyman’s arraignment Tuesday about 25 of Woods’ friends and family members gathered outside the court, waiting for Twyman to arrive in the backseat of a patrol car.

Among the group was the 18-year-old daughter who lived with Woods and Twyman. Surrounded by friends and relatives just hours after her mother’s murder, the teen prepared to face the man who police say admitted to pulling the trigger. Her father.

Waiting for Twyman to arrive, the teen seemed determined. She wanted everyone to know that her mother had sought help before, that the police had been to their home multiple times after arguments got out of hand, that everyone knew it was only a matter of time before something terrible happened.

Twice before, in the late nineties, Woods had filed a Protection from Abuse order against Twyman. Both times the court filings came in the same year that Twyman pleaded guilty to assault charges. Officials this week confirmed that Woods was the victim in those cases.

Woods filed the latest PFA in December, an emergency order granting her 48 hours of protection, but she never followed up to finalize a permanent PFA and the couple continued to live together. Less than half a year later, a woman is dead and the man who police say killed her is behind bars without bail.

Law enforcement officials said Woods’ death serves as another painful reminder of domestic violence’s deadly potential. The killing came just over a year after another Chester County mother, Kimberly Hvizda, was killed by a spouse with an abusive history.

“The Jamica Woods case is a tragedy,” said Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan. “The recent domestic violence homicides in Chester County send some strong messages. First, domestic violence does not discriminate based on race, geography, or socioeconomic status. Second, victims and law enforcement need to work together to protect the victims.”

According to Hogan, in many cases domestic violence victims choose to tough it out and stick with an abusive spouse. For some the choice is made out of fear, for others it’s made out of a sense of loyalty, perhaps even love.

Hogan said that both East Fallowfield police and state troopers responded to the couple’s home multiple times to deal with ongoing issues. East Fallowfield Police Chief Chris Porter, who went to school with Jamica Woods and was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene of her death, even offered to let Woods and her daughter stay with him to remain safe, Hogan said.

“Too often, after the emotion of the attack wears off, victims do not want to cooperate with law enforcement to prosecute,” Hogan said. “This just emboldens the defendants. Victims need to trust that law enforcement is there to help.”

Hogan pointed to emerging law enforcement techniques designed to recognize situations with a high risk of escalating into a homicide. Named the Lethality Assessment Program (LAP), it outlines a series of protocols for law enforcement officers dealing with a domestic violence situation.

The LAP protocol is mainly a list of questions for police officers to ask of a domestic violence victim, including questions about the use and availability of weapons, the nature of threats, and the history of violence between them. If the victim answers yes to a certain amount of questions, the officer is directed to another series of protocols that include warnings about the potential of escalating violence.

Every member of the District Attorney’s Office has been trained to use the LAP protocols, Hogan said, and training is currently rolling out to the county’s police departments. Law enforcement officials like Hogan are confident the technique will help law enforcement predict when a domestic violence situation may escalate into a homicide.

“Domestic violence cases are notoriously difficult to anticipate and no predictive tool is perfect. But if the LAP protocol helps us save a single life, it will be worth it,” Hogan said.